PTA tax on mobile phones in 2026: what you will actually pay

The Finance Act 2026-27 did not abolish the tax on imported phones. A National Assembly committee recommended scrapping the regulatory duty in June 2026, but that stayed a recommendation. Here is what actually moved.

• Regulatory duty fell by 20% in every slab. For a phone above $500 it dropped from Rs 22,000 to Rs 17,600. For the $100–$200 slab it went from Rs 7,500 to Rs 6,000. The new figures are reported against SRO 1064(I)/2026.
• Sales tax did not change. It stays at 18% for phones valued up to $500 and 25% above $500, charged on the phone's value rather than as a flat amount.
• Income tax on the $100–$200 slab dropped from Rs 930 to Rs 100.
• Paying in instalments became legal. The Act allows sales tax on an imported phone to be paid in parts through DIRBS, as long as the last part is paid before the financial year of import ends. As of mid-September 2026, no instalment option had appeared on the portal and no procedure had been notified.

Before the budget, FBR told parliament the effective tax ran from about 25% on the cheapest sets to 41% above $500. The cuts trim those numbers without changing their shape.

Each slab carries fixed rupee amounts plus a percentage. Customs duty is listed at zero for smartphones, so the bill is built from four parts: regulatory duty, mobile levy, sales tax and, on the CNIC route, advance income tax.

Duty: Profit (Pakistan Today), Sep 2026, citing SRO 1064(I)/2026. Sales tax: Business Recorder and Express Tribune. Levy and income tax: Express Tribune for the top slabs; lower rows from two independent calculators that agree. *One June 2026 report printed this levy as Rs 20, so treat it as unconfirmed. Non-filers pay double income tax.

Both routes share the same duty, levy and sales tax. They differ in who qualifies, the deadline and income tax.

Above $500, the income tax gap alone is Rs 11,500 for a filer and Rs 23,000 for a non-filer, so it pays to have whoever carried the phone register it on their passport in time. If you are unsure of your filer status, our salary tax calculator page explains how being on the Active Taxpayers List changes withholding.

Follow the path that matches you. Every phone that stays ends at a PSID.

For the free visitor facility, FBR's order asks for your passport number, travel dates, a SIM in your own name and the IMEI, which FIA and the operator verify in real time. After 120 days that IMEI is blacklisted, so pay before then if the phone is staying.

FBR does not publish a public per-model value list for personal registrations, and we have not invented one. Each example uses an assumed FBR value and Rs 277 per dollar, close to the recent interbank rate. Sales tax is worked on the converted value, as most calculators do.

Registration works only from inside Pakistan. Keep the phone, your passport or CNIC, a local number and an email address ready.

1. Find both IMEIsDial *#06# on the phone. A dual-SIM or eSIM phone shows two numbers, and both must be entered for the same device.
2. Open the DRS portalGo to the official PTA Device Registration System and create an account, or use the USSD menu by dialling *8484# from a local SIM.
3. Choose the right categoryPick the local or overseas user type. Overseas Pakistanis and foreigners choose the temporary option if they only need the free 120 days.
4. Enter your detailsAdd passport number, CNIC, number of SIM slots and the IMEIs. Confirm with the one-time code sent to your phone or email.
5. Receive the PSIDThe system calculates duty and taxes and issues a Payment Slip ID. The amount on it is the official figure for your device.
6. Pay the PSIDFBR allows payment online, through ATM, mobile banking apps or at a bank branch. Search for the FBR or 1Bill option in your banking app and paste the PSID.
7. Wait for whitelistingOnce payment is confirmed, the IMEI is whitelisted in DIRBS. Recheck the status on 8484 before you throw away the receipt.

Text each 15-digit IMEI to 8484 (Ufone lists the charge as 10 paisa). Expect one of these replies.

What happens if you never register

A valid but unregistered IMEI works with a SIM for 60 days after it is first seen on a network, according to Ufone's DIRBS page. Then the SIM slots stop working. Wi-Fi, the camera and apps still run, which is why some people keep non-PTA phones as Wi-Fi-only devices.

Buying a non-PTA phone locally

These phones are cheaper because nobody has paid the tax. If the IMEI shows “valid but not PTA approved”, you can register it on CNIC; add that tax to the shop price before comparing it with an approved unit.

Why “JV” and patched phones are a trap

Shops use “JV” loosely. It often means a carrier-locked phone running on a chip that bypasses the lock, and sometimes a phone whose IMEI has been patched to copy another, already-taxed handset. A chip can stop working after a software update. A copied IMEI is worse: when DIRBS sees one IMEI on several devices, those devices can be blocked with no way to pay and recover them.

Pakistan's electronic crimes law also punishes changing a device's unique identifier and then using or selling it with up to three years in prison, a Rs 1 million fine, or both.

To test values, our PTA tax calculator lets you edit the slab table when rates change.